Fri, May 22, 2009 page3

• REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Foreign reporters give Ma mixed reviews

  • By Ko Shu-ling / STAFF REPORTER
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  President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) press conference with foreign correspondents on Wednesday marking his first year in office got mixed reviews.

  During the one-hour press conference, Ma left the podium six times, walking toward reporters while talking to them because he had problems hearing their questions, apologizing for the acoustics of the century-old building. The Presidential Office later said it would try to fix the problem, which it said was caused by the high ceiling in the large room.

  Even so, Ma misunderstood some of the questions.

  

  President Ma Ying-jeou strains to hear a question during his first anniversary press conference with foreign correspondents at the Presidential Office in Taipei on Wednesday.

  PHOTO: AFP

  Some reporters also complained about the seemingly unfair way in which reporters were selected to ask questions. Big name media outlets such as Reuters, The Associated Press and Bloomberg did not find favor with the host.

  Presidential Office Public Affairs Department Director Tsai Chung-li (蔡仲禮) said he did not know all of the 118 reporters who turned up for the press conference, but he tried to be fair with his selections.

  Max Hirsch, president of the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents Club, said he thought it was a standard performance from Ma.

  Hirsch said he did not blame Ma for selectively answering reporters’ questions, though he added that Ma seemed to be tired and had visibly gotten older.

  “You can kind of see the stress of the job is affecting him physically,” he said. “He was trying, but he couldn’t hear and he also looked like he was making an effort to try to understand reporters’ questions.”

  He said although the acoustics seemed fine to him, it could have been worse from Ma’s position. Besides, he said the press conference was in English and reporters were from all over the world with different accents.

  Hirsch said he thought it was quite strange for Ma to walk down from the podium several times and talk to reporters.

  “I wouldn’t go so far as ‘undignified.’ I would say it was not suitable for a president, but it’s also not that big a deal,” Hirsch said.

  Commenting on Ma’s English, Hirsch said he was disappointed at times, but at other times pleasantly surprised.

  “Some of the answers, not all of them, show that he planned to kind of think on his feet in English, which is not easy,” he said.

  Another native English-speaking reporter who spoke on condition of anonymity said there was nothing wrong with the acoustics.

  “The sound was fine,” he said. “I plugged my recorder in, listened to the sound and didn’t have a problem.”

  He said he suspected Ma was pretending not to hear clearly, or maybe his English was bad. Some of the reporters’ English was bad too, he said, but Ma did not answer questions properly.

  “He deliberately answered one woman’s question completely wrong [the answer was unrelated]. He did that about three times,” he said. “Maybe he didn’t want to answer them.”

  Another reporter said he thought Ma might have a hearing problem and he showed signs of burning out.

  “You can tell from his eyes that he is burning out. He is trying hard, but his brain seems non-responsive to questions,” he said. “Maybe he has too much information to process every day and he simply cannot handle it.”

  The reporter said he took every opportunity to ask tough questions and cooperated with other reporters to get answers.

  “Going to a press conference like this is like playing a game. You must have a strategy,” he said. “I thought we won the game, but we were disappointed to face such a bad player.”
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